World-Geography24

Spanish is the predominant language in the majority of the countries. Portuguese is spoken primarily in Brazil, where it is both the official and the national language. French is also spoken in smaller countries, in the Caribbean, and in French Guiana. Dutch is the official language on various Caribbean islands and in Suriname on the continent; however, as Dutch is a Germanic language, these territories can not be considered part of Latin America.

Several nations, especially in the Caribbean, have their own Creole languages, derived from European languages and various African tongues. Native American languages are spoken in many Latin American nations, mainly Peru, Guatemala, Bolivia, Paraguay, and to a lesser deegree in Mexico and Ecuador. Note that the lesser degree of indigenous speakers in Mexico is proportional to that country’s population. In real numbers, however, Mexico harbours the largest population of indigenous speaker of any country in the Americas, surpassing Amerindian majority countries of Guatemala, Bolivia and the Amerindian plurality country of Peru. The population of speakers of indigenous languages in other countries is tiny or non-existent.

In Peru, Quechua holds official language status, alongside Spanish and any other indigenous language in the areas where they predominate. In Bolivia, Aymara, Quechua and Guaraní hold official status alongside Spanish. Guarani is, along with Spanish, the official language of Paraguay, and is spoken by a majority of the population who are for the most part mestizos bilingual in Spanish. In Ecuador, while holding no official status, Quichua is a recognized language of the indigenous people under the country’s constitution, however, it is only spoken by a few groups in the Sierra region of the country. Colombia, while having fewer than 1% of its population as speakers of indigenous languages, recognizes all indigenous languages spoken within its territory as official. Nahuatl is only one of the 62 native languages spoken by indigenous people in Mexico, which are officially recognised by the government as “national languages”, along with Spanish.

European languages, other than Spanish and Portuguese, that are spoken include; Italian in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Venezuela; German in southern Brazil, Argentina, and two German-speaking villages, one in southern Chile and another in northern Venezuela; Welsh in southern Argentina.

Latin America has a very diverse population, with many ethnic groups of different ancestries or races, the majority of which are either of European, Amerindian, or African descent, or a mix of any of these.

Only in three countries do the Amerindians make up the largest segment of the population: in Guatemala and Bolivia they represent a majority of over 50%, and in Peru they constitute a plurality of just under 50%. In the rest of the Continent, most people with a Native American lineage are admixed with one or more other racial lineages.

Since the 16th century a large number of Iberian colonists left for Latin America: the Portuguese to Brazil and the Spaniards to the rest of the region. An intensive race mixing between the Europeans and the Amerindians occurred (mostly in, and after, the 1800s) and their descendants, known as mestizos, make up the majority of the population in several Latin American countries, such as Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and Venezuela.

Starting in the late 16th century, a large number of black African slaves was brought to Latin America, the majority of whom were sent to the Caribbean and Brazil. Nowadays, African descendants make up the majority of the population in most Caribbean countries. Many of the African slaves in Latin America mixed with the Europeans, and their descendants, known as Mulattos, make up the majority of the population in some countries such as the Dominican Republic and Cuba, and a large proportion of the populations of Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, and Belize. Mixing between Africans and Amerindians also occurred, and their descendants are known as Zambos, found primarily in Venezuela and Colombia. Many Latin American countries also have a substantial tri-racial population, their ancestry being a mix of European, Amerindian, and African, most notably in Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Brazil.

Large numbers of European immigrants arrived in Latin America in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, most of them settling in Argentina, Uruguay and southern Brazil. The majority population of this combined region is composed of Whites, most of whom, more than 90%, are descendants of the top five groups of European immigrants: Italians, Spaniards, Portuguese, Germans and Irish. Some of the other groups are Poles, Russians, Welsh, Ukrainians, French, Croatians and European Jews. In all, more than two thirds of Latin America’s overall white population resides in this region.

In this same period, many immigrants came from the Middle-East and Asia, including Indians, Lebanese, Syrians, and, more recently, Koreans, Chinese and Japanese (mainly to Brazil). In the late 19th century, a small wave of Americans, mostly from the former Confederate States or the Southern U.S., settled in Brazil and fewer across Latin America.

This diversity of Latin America has profoundly influenced religion, music, and politics, and gave rise to a weak feeling of identity. This opaque cultural heritage and identity is called Latin or Latino in United States’ English. Outside of the U.S., and in many languages (especially romance ones) “Latino” just means “Latin”, referring to cultures and peoples that can trace their heritage back to the ancient Roman Empire. Latin American is the proper term.

Latin America (Portuguese/Spanish: América Latina) is the region of the Americas where Romance languages — those derived from Latin — are officially or primarily spoken. Latin America is distinct from Anglo-America, a region of the Americas where English, a Germanic language, predominates.

There are several definitions of Latin America:

From a strict cultural and linguistic perspective, it would include all countries and territories where Romance languages — Spanish, Portuguese, French, and their creoles — are spoken.
The most common view is that Latin America includes territories in the Americas where Spanish or Portuguese prevail: Mexico and most of Central America, South America, and (per land area and population) the Caribbean. The acronym “LACRO” refers to this view. The English-speaking American countries are not considered to be part of Latin America. Territories where other Romance languages such as French (e.g., Quebec in Canada) or Kreyol (e.g. Haiti, Martinique and Guadeloupe) predominate are frequently not considered to be part of Latin America from this perspective, despite the French origins of the concept. The former Dutch colonies Suriname, Netherlands Antilles and Aruba are not considerend parts of Latin America, even though in the latter two, the predominantly Iberian-influenced language Papiamentu is more widely spoken than Dutch.
Sometimes, particularly in the United States, the term “Latin America” is used to refer to all of America south of the U.S., including countries such as Belize, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Jamaica, Barbados and Suriname where non-Romance languages prevail. Conversely, it is often used in Brazil to designate the Spanish-speaking countries within this area, which are often known as Hispanic America.
Geopolitically, Latin America is divided into 20 independent countries and several dependent territories. Spanish is predominant and an official language in most Latin American countries, with the exception of Brazil where Portuguese prevails.